Saturday, 29 November 2014

Weapons specialists are great ways of adding an extra kick to units. Whether you need a big gun to take out armour, a rapid firing monster, or a bunker-busting weapon, there is a gun for every occasion. Today, I'll be looking at a third part weapon that has a wide variety of uses. Today I present Maxmini's Matter Displacement Guns.

Retailing at £5.55, this set comes with six MDGs, cast in resin. They are suitable for 28mm models, though due to their bulk they are best used on Space Marines and other superhuman models.

The details are very Imperial in nature: blocky structure with techy do-dads, tipped with a strange crystal. The details are a bit crude, but well done. The casts are quite clean with little to no warping on any of the five rifles.

The guns are large when compared to other guns, and herein lies an issue. The guns are too big to fit in normal arm pairings. You have to options: either use arms with wide spacing, or as shown below...

Trim the gun down. To make it fit, I cut off the butt of the gun, and the protruding section on the underside. Whilst this dies make the gun fit, it does defeat the point of having these details. To combat this, you could have the gun held one handed or "at ease".

In terms of an in-game use they are fairly universal, as they have generic design features, with none of the defining features that Melta, Plasma or flame weapons have. I could imagine these guns being suitable for any of these. The distinction could be masks by painting the crystals different colours (green for plasma, red for flame etc.).

Overall these MDGs have plenty of potential. Whilst blocky and potentially awkward to fit, they are a nice change from the widening array of similar looking special weapons offered by many companies out these.

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

“The chosen son of Tzeentch will rise again", that's what the prophecy foretold. And it is thought to have manifested. Magnus the Red, primarch of the thousand sons, the fallen leader of Tzeentch's favoured sons, walks realspasce once more, alongside the brotherhood of change. The daemon primarch has laid waste to many armies. Many sorcerers within the Thousand Sons warband welcome there return of their lord with joy, but some, those who were the first to see the Red Sorcerer, silently suspect they are being deceived. There are a number of powerful daemons who take joy in bending reality to their wills. Could this be a false Magnus?

Finally, I have done it. I am making headway on bringing the Thousand Sons primarch into model form. And with the rules for Aetaos'rau'keres (the super lord of change) and the release of Nagash, I had the perfect rules and base model to bring this daemon lord to life. To help tie the model into a 40k army, it was mounted on a custom round base, made from a spare 5" large blast template.

A lot of the Nagash model was used for this conversion. The main change is the head, which is more human-like. The only heads I had of a suitable size were Ogryn heads, so that's what I used. It is a little bone-headed in facial structure, but it is fine. I've covered most of the head with a hood anyway, and plan to add hair, to help make it more suited.

The pole axe was another key change to the base kit. I decided to use the shaft from Nagash's staff, with a custom chain/power blade hybrid inspired by this artwork of a pre-daemon Magnus. A pair of Tzeentch icons help remind us that he is not a fallen demi-god.

The spirits, whilst cool, aren't entirely suited. I noticed that the super LOC has an ability to summon Horrors, so that gave me the idea to add flying daemons in place of some of the spirits. They still need arms, but blended in they are a neat addition to this Tzeentch powerhouse.

The model isn't done quite yet. I still need a suitable pair of shoulder pads and need to modify the armour. I also plan to fill in some of the tears in the cloak. The model is incredibly imposing already, next to infantry and even tanks he is a giant, and weigh some more work it will make for a fantastic display piece and gaming centrepiece.

Saturday, 15 November 2014

This month has been good for getting stuff done. Today I have a lot of new progress to show with the Contemptor Dreadnought.

The Contemptor has been given a unique colour scheme, something greatly different from the usual blue scheme. This blue/yellow halved scheme was inspired by another Thousand Sons dreadnought, seen in the preview images for Imperial Armour 13: Warmachines of the Lost and Damned. The yellow was applied with the airbrush for a smooth shaded tone.

Having done the main colours and made a start on the trim, I've started working on some icons and freehand designs. Seeing as the colour scheme is new, I thought I'd have a go at a few new designs. The main one is this 'infinity' variation of the Thousand Son's symbol.

As I add more to this model, it is slowly building up a story to go with it. I imagine its occupant being a powerful sorcerer, despite internment into a metal shell.

The crushed necron warrior has also received a lick of paint. It is being painted in the same scheme as my girlfriend's necrons, because, you know, fun rivalries and all that. The soul burner in the other hand has yet to be painted, but I plan to paint it in aqua/faded greens to achieve ghostly colours.

That is all for this week, but here is a little surprise for you all. Here is a sneak peak at my next big project. The fallen lord emerges from his towers of silver after millennia of contemplating the ever changing strands of the warp.

Thursday, 6 November 2014

First off, an apology for the recent peace on the blog. A combination of work, family life and car-related work has taken up most of my time, leaving little for the likes of 40k. But now I can get back to writing, and I'll be starting off with my current projects.

For a while I've been meaning to show you more of my redone chaos contemptor dreadnought. This one was my first contemptor, and is the one you've seen at least once each time you've visited the blog (hint: look at the top). It had been looking quite tired against my newer projects, and if I am honest, a little plain. So here's the latest version.

I wanted to add more chaotic details to this model. Two gargoyle heads have replaced the exhaust rings (which were actually reused to make the gemstone surrounds on the shoulders). two small horns have gone in the rings above the contemptor's head. these are the horn tips from the CSM Icon of Tzeentch. I think that they are subtle, yet suggest that this is a dark machine of Chaos.

My favourite part remains the Soul Burner. Using parts leftover from Nagash, I've created a "spirit cannon", which fires the flaming souls of the damned at my enemies. Painting has begun, and I hope to achieve results similar to those on my recently finished Spartan.

Now, onto this fun little side project. I was so excited to discover chaos space marines could finally use rapier weapons platforms. Having made a few for kicks, it’s great to be able to use them. I plan to get a squad of three heavy bolter armed rapiers for some serious anti horde.

I did notice one interesting load out...the Cyclotrathe pattern conversion beamer: essentially a short range hcb. This looks like a fun powerful gun, so I've turned one of my planned custom builds into a Cyclotrathe variant.

The track unit is make from thinned down Taurox units, with plasticard tracks. The gun is mostly Necron Gauss Cannon components, with added pistons, spikes, and mechanical do-dads. The read is made of random junk, mainly part of a Grenade launcher from the Bullgryn set, and Necron cut-offs. Despite being made of junk, I think it works well as a rapier gun. All it needs now is a brother and some Chaos Space Marine crew.